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The Draft IOT Cybersecurity Act of 2017: According to an article in the National Law Review, this draft legislation was introduced by Senators Mark Warner, Cory Gardner, Ron Wyden, and Steve Daines. The purpose of the legislation is to entice IoT vendors to implement the following designs into their products: the ability to patch devices; […]

A recent article by Kevin Collier, which appeared in BuzzFeed highlights what seems to be a recurring trend. US officials talk about how important and critical cyber is, and yet top cyber positions remain unfilled and the cyber ranks continue to be understaffed. The article indicates that four key cyber roles: Chief Information Security Officer […]

DEFCON Convention: Voting Machine Hacks (Business Insider) According to an article by Sonam Sheth hackers at DEFCON were able to breach multiple voting machines within only minutes. Sheth’s article states that hackers were able to infiltrate every single one of the thirty voting machines within just moments of having physical access and that even rudimentary […]

Ransomware, Hacks, and Cybersecurity Issues: As long as there are users there will be issues Various media outlets have reported a dramatic rise in ransomware attacks and the NY Times reported that the most recent attacks impacted over 200,000 machines running the Windows operating systems (OS), across 150 countries. The NYTimes article posits that hospitals, […]

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Cyber Extortion Demands Surge as Victims Keep Paying: Symantec (USNews.com): Alastair Sharp reports that hackers continue to use ransomware to extort increasingly hefty fees from their victims. According to the article the average ransom has increased more than threefold from $294 to $1,077, as cyber extortionists continue to explore the ceiling. The article states that in […]

Multiple news outlets have reported that a forty-seven-count indictment was handed up in the Northern District of California for multiple computer fraud and abuse act violations stemming from breaches of Yahoo accounts. The indictment includes four named parties and other unknown and unnamed: (1) Dmitry Aleksandrovich Dokuchaev was a Russian FSB Officer, (2) Igor Anatolyevich […]

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According to an article by Niall Ferguson which appeared in the Boston Globe, we are currently in a state of Cyber War. This article, entitled “Cyber War I Has Already Begun,” discusses the the Russian hacks surrounding election time in the United States and posits that the largest issue is not whether or not Russia […]

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As we continue to move to a world wherein all things are networked and even toys now have connections to the cloud, people need to be cognizant and careful. According to the Hacker News, in 2015 the toy manufacturer VTech revealed that they had suffered a data breach which resulted in the exfiltration of personally […]

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Professor William Snyder

Ryan D. White

Ryan is currently a third year law student at Syracuse University College of Law, and is also pursuing a Master of Public Administration degree from Syracuse’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Ryan spent time with Homeland Security Investigations while pursuing his undergraduate degree at Wesleyan University, and spent his first summer of law school as clerk for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of New York. He is a member of Syracuse Law Review, the Journal on Terrorism and Security Analysis, and participates in the Veteran’s Legal Clinic.

Christopher W. Folk

is a 2017 graduate of SU College of Law. A non-traditional student, Christopher returned to academia after spending nearly twenty years in the high tech industry. Christopher served in the Marine Corps, graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. In Applied Economics and Business Management, attended Northeastern University’s High-Tech MBA Program and received a M.S. In Computer Information Systems. Christopher previously worked in Software Engineering. Christopher is currently serving his second term as Town Justice for the Town of Waterloo. Christopher externed with a Cybersecurity firm in the Washington, D.C. area between his first and second year at SU College of Law.

Anna Maria Castillo

is 2016 graduate of Syracuse College of Law. She also holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She has interned at a London-based think-tank that specializes in transnational terrorism and global security and at the legal department of a defense contractor. She served as an executive editor in the Syracuse Law Review.

Jennifer A. Camillo

is a 2015 graduate of Syracuse College of Law and is a prosecutor. She has served as a law clerk in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York and the Cayuga County District Attorney’s Office and as an extern in the Oneida County District Attorney’s Office. She was a member of the Syracuse National Trial Team and was awarded the Tiffany Cup by the New York Bar Association for her trial advocacy achievements.

Tara J. Pistorese

holds Juris Doctor and Masters of Public Administration degrees from Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and its College of Law. She wrote for this blog when a student. She is now a member of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps.

Benjamin Zaiser

is both a scholar and a Federal Agent of the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany. (Opinions expressed here are his own and not any part of official duty.)